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Plague found in Boulder-area fleas; residents warned to take precautions

By Joe Rubino

Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
08/20/2014 08:52:01 PM MDT

Updated:
08/21/2014 11:56:45 AM MDT

A public health notice warning residents of bubonic plague found in fleas sits on an open space fence post Wednesday on Terrace Place in Boulder County. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera)

Stopping the plague

Boulder County Public Health officials recommend the following precautions to reduce the risk of contracting bubonic plague:

Avoid fleas. Protect pets with flea powder, drops or a new flea collar. Keep pets on leashes and out of wild rodent habitats.

Stay out of wild rodent habitats yourself. Wear insect repellent and tuck pant cuffs into socks if walking through areas wild rodents are known to be.

Avoid rodents including squirrels. Do not feed them.

Do not touch sick or dead animals.

Prevent rodent infestation near your home by clearing plants away from outside walls, reducing access to possible food sources and setting up traps.

Treat rodent sites near your home with flea powder or insecticide.

Anyone who observes plague symptoms in a person or pet, including fatigue, fever and swollen lymph nodes, should contact their health care provider or veterinarian immediately. The illness can be treated with antibiotics.

People using open space areas near Boulder's southeastern border might consider keeping their pets on a shorter leash — and tucking their pants into their socks — for the remainder of the summer.

Bubonic plague has returned to Boulder County, public health officials announced after fleas collected from the city of Boulder's Marshall open space property, northeast of the intersection of South Boulder and Cherryvale roads, last week tested positive for the disease.

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The flea samples were collected from a deserted prairie dog colony on the property, officials say. It is the first confirmed case of plague in Boulder County since 2011.

The threat of spreading the disease has not been deemed serious enough to close the open space, but county health officials are urging people to protect themselves.

"The fleas don't travel large distances, so it's nothing we're seeing spread or becoming an epidemic. It's confined to that one area," said Lane Drager, consumer protection coordinator for Boulder County Public Health. "But if pets are going into these areas, they are risking exposure for themselves and for those pet owners."

The plague can causes symptoms including high fever, extreme fatigue and painful, swollen lymph nodes.

Drager said county officials chose not to dust the Marshall property with pesticides because they did not "feel there was an immediate risk to the community." Any risk will diminish when the first freeze sets in this fall or winter and the flea population dies off.

Heather Swanson, a wildlife ecologist for Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, said the disease has been active, if not confirmed, every year since 2005.

She said open space officials have posted signs warning of the plague risk in and around the 44-acre Marshall property, including at the nearby Dry Creek Trailhead, located southwest of the intersection of Basline Road and North 75th Street, and on the corner of Cherryvale and South Boulder Roads.

She said she would discourage people from visiting the Marshall property, home to a single, large prairie dog colony, at this time.

Lafayette resident Stewart Williams showed up at the Dry Creek Trail around 2 p.m. Wednesday with his dogs Bailey and Sophie. Even though he saw the signs, he said he was not too concerned his pets would contract plague.

Beverly Dowers, a resident of the Fairview Estates neighborhood just east of the Marshall property, said she and her husband contacted officials after noticing the prairie dogs that had previously been encroaching on their yard all but disappeared three weeks ago.

Now that the plague has been confirmed, Dowers said she just put some fresh flea drops on her pug, Mopps.

She hopes the plague confirmation might spur officials to install a prairie dog fence along the Marshall property to protect the neighborhood, something she and her husband had hoped would happen for years.

"It's concerned us for a long time," she said. "Our grandkids play here. It's scary, you know?"

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